Kaylee’s First Crush (7 page)

She shook her
head. “I don’t think I would’ve complained if you did.”

He did
something she couldn’t see with the condom, then rolled back over and slid an
arm around her waist. “How do you feel?”

“Sleepy,” she
replied, unwilling to examine the myriad of emotions running through her head.
Now was not the time. She wanted to bask in the aftermath. She’d finally lost
her virginity!

“Then close
your eyes. Time to dream,” Hugo said, smoothing her hair tenderly. He plucked
her glasses off her face and set them on the nightstand. Between one breath and
the next, Kaylee fell asleep.

Chapter Six

Six months
later, Kaylee sat in her office and stared out the window. The buildings of
lower Manhattan glimmered in the heat as though the city was a mirage. Nothing
about her life felt quite real, even though she’d been working for half a year
as a marketing consultant. She’d moved into an apartment in Brooklyn and made
some great friends. Everything was going just as she’d planned it, but even so,
it felt like her life was missing some essential element. It had felt that way
ever since the snowstorm in Chicago.

She sighed and
swiveled around toward her computer. She couldn’t stop thinking about Hugo.
After their one night together, they’d gone their separate ways. Both of their
flights had been rescheduled unexpectedly early, so they hadn’t even had time
to eat breakfast together. The morning after, she’d woken up and had to
scramble to get back to the airport. There hadn’t been time for awkwardness.
There hadn’t been time for anything except a quick kiss and heartfelt hug. At
one point, right before she got out of the car, she thought Hugo might ask for
her number, but instead, he’d just leaned over and cupped her cheek in his
hand, eyes brimming with some complex emotion. She hadn’t expected more from
him anyway, and he’d never promised her anything. She hadn’t
asked
him
for anything.

So why are
you still moping over him?
she
berated herself.

“Kaylee!
Guess what I’ve got?” Darla
walked in and sat down in her guest chair, fanning her face with a magazine.

“A winning lottery ticket?”
Kaylee
asked, welcoming the distraction. It was better to joke around with her friend
than sit here mooning over the unattainable man. Darla was one of the first
people she’d met in the city and they’d become fast friends. They were around
the same age, worked in the same company, and through some bizarre twist of
fate, they both had an apartment in the same building.

“Nope.
Try again,” Darla said, eyes
twinkling.

Kaylee faked
exasperation.
“A note from a secret admirer?”

“Not even close, though that would be really, really cool.”
She smirked. “Try again.”

“Hmm.
A killer
lychee martini recipe?”

 
Wow, you suck at this,” Darla said, flicking
the pages back and forth.

“Tickets to a show?”

Darla set the
magazine down in front of Kaylee. “Look at the cover.”

Kaylee glanced
down and froze. Hugo Valtree stared up at her from the glossy paper, suave and
masculine. He was smiling, of course. He looked supremely unaffected by the
memory of that night, though to be fair, it was impossible to draw conclusions
from a two-dimensional representation of the man. Kaylee frowned and pushed the
magazine away. “He’s cute. So?”

“What do you
mean, ‘so’? Did you read the headline?” Darla pushed it back across the desk.

Kaylee sighed
and read aloud. “Hugo Valtree, the world’s most eligible bachelor, reveals he’s
off the market.” Ignoring the stab of pain those words caused
her,
she lifted her eyebrows in question at her friend. “So
what?” she asked nonchalantly, as though the news that Hugo had found someone
else to love wasn’t killing her inside.

“Hugo Valtree,
the guy I have had a crush on ever since I read that article about him being an
English teacher, is dating someone. I’m devastated,” Darla proclaimed, throwing
her hands out dramatically. “How could he do this to me?” She gazed longingly
down at the photo. “We had something special.” She wiped a fake tear from her
eye.

Kaylee laughed
despite herself. “You were never going to meet him anyway. He’s out of our
league.”

Darla rolled
her eyes. “Speak for yourself, girl. I still had hope.” She paged through the
magazine until she found the center spread. “Look at him. He’s freaking
gorgeous.”

Kaylee couldn’t
help it. She looked down. Hugo sat in a plain black chair wearing a pair of old
jeans and nothing else. They were ripped at the knee. His hair was a little
longer than she remembered, but it only made him look even more handsome. He
leaned forward, hands clasped together. The pose highlighted the muscles in his
arms.

“I can’t
believe they talked him into posing without a shirt. He always wears a suit
when he does interviews.” Darla traced a finger down the page.

Kaylee’s hand
twitched with the urge to snatch the magazine away. She didn’t want anyone else
touching him.

“Look at this
next photo. It’s even better,” Darla said, eagerly turning the page.

Kaylee’s mouth
went dry when she caught sight of it. Hugo stood near a large window, again
wearing nothing but a pair of old jeans. One arm was up and he leaned his head
against his forearm. The light truly loved him—every muscle stood out in sharp
contrast. “Jesus,” she muttered, skin going hot.

“I know, right?
That man is seriously fine. I wonder who he’s
dating?
He wouldn’t answer that question in the interview.” Darla turned the page
again. “And now he’s back in his suit.”

Kaylee bit her
lip, remembering what it had been like to see him nude. “He didn’t always wear
suits,” she said absently.

“Wait, what?”
Darla
asked,
voice sharp. “How do you know this?”

Shit. Kaylee
hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
“Nothing.”
She
smiled weakly.

Darla didn’t
buy it. “You know something.
Something about Mr. Hottie
here.”
She pressed a finger right on Hugo’s crotch.
“Spill.”

Kaylee shoved
the finger away and closed the magazine. She might as well explain. She’d only
known Darla for six months, but she already knew her friend wouldn’t let it go.
She was like a dog with a bone. “He used to teach at my high school.” Kaylee
figured that was enough information. Darla didn’t need to know about her
desperate one-night hookup with ‘Mr. Hottie.’

“Yeah, I know
that. It says so in the article,” Darla began, but then her gaze sharpened.
“Wait a minute. He taught at
your
high school?”

Kaylee nodded.
“I had him for English my senior year.”

Darla’s mouth
fell open. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”
Kaylee laughed at the
stupefied look on her friend’s face. “He used to wear button down shirts and a
tie. He always had the nicest ties. Sometimes he wore a sports jacket, but not
always.”

“You had the
sexy Hugo Valtree for a teacher and you never told me?” Darla’s voice got
louder as she spoke.

“I forgot,”
Kaylee said, shrugging. “It was a long time ago.”

“You forgot,”
Darla said incredulously. “Five years isn’t that long.”

Kaylee shrugged
again, just to be annoying.

Darla pursed
her lips. “Do you know who he’s dating?”

“How would I
know that?” Kaylee replied. “I thought he was single. The last article you read
didn’t mention that he was seeing anyone.” The pang of hurt was still there.
Kaylee tried to ignore it.

Darla looked
like she was about to say something, but a knock on the door had them both
turning to see who was there.

“I have a
delivery for a Kaylee Paulson?” the delivery man asked, looking down at his clipboard.

“That’s me,”
Kaylee said, frowning. She hadn’t been expecting anything. And the man wasn’t
their usual delivery guy.

“I’ve got a
package for you,” the man said. “Just sign here.” He extended his sheet.

She signed it
and he handed over a large padded envelope. When she opened it, a small
jeweler’s box fell into her lap along with a smaller envelope. Kaylee stared at
them, heart suddenly knocking against her ribs. She had a feeling she knew who
was sending them, even though it made no sense after all this time.

“What are you
waiting for?” Darla asked, leaning closer. “Open the box, before I die of
curiosity.”

Kaylee lifted
it with shaking fingers. She pulled the cardboard lid off only to find another,
velvet-covered box inside. When she pried that one open, she gasped. A pair of
diamond teardrop earrings dangled from the soft padding.

“Holy wow, are
those real?” Darla breathed. “I thought you said you weren’t dating anyone?”

Kaylee knew
they were real, and most likely worth more than she made in a year. She touched
a finger to one of the diamonds. It had to be at least one and a half carats.

“I’m not,” she
said, trying to wrap her mind around this. Her earlier suspicions proved
correct. There was only one person she knew who could afford this kind of jewelry.
That he would send it to her stunned her speechless. What was he doing? Six
months with no contact and now this?

“What’s in the
envelope?” Darla poked her.

Kaylee licked
her lips, almost afraid to look. What if he was sending them as a sort of sordid
thank you? She hoped not. With one swift motion, she tore open the envelope. A
card fell out. The design embossed at the top was a stylized V, the logo of
Valtree Enterprises. She quickly put her hand over the graphic, not wanting
Darla to see. As she looked at the handwriting on the paper, she immediately
recognized Hugo’s sprawling script from all the times he’d corrected her essays
in high school:

Kaylee,
these are simply decoration for the beauty I know is inside you.

There was no
signature. She didn’t need one to know who sent them.

“Oh my God, Kaylee!”
Darla said,
reading over her shoulder. Excitement colored her voice. “You have a secret
admirer with loads of money. This kind of thing only happens in the movies.”

“It’s not a
secret admirer. I know who it is,” Kaylee said reluctantly.

Darla sucked in
a breath. “You do?”

Kaylee nodded.

“Well, who?”
her friend prodded when she didn’t elaborate.

“I have to send
them back,” Kaylee said, not answering Darla’s question. She stuffed the note
into her pants pocket.

“What? Are you
serious? No, put them on.” Darla seized the box and wrested the earrings free
of the padding. “Here.”

Kaylee sighed
and took them. Darla dragged her to the bathroom so she could see how they
looked. When she moved her hair aside, she had to admit that she really liked
them. They sparkled when she moved her head. Between the earrings and the note,
all the feelings she’d been trying to suppress for the last six months came
roaring back up. She wanted to see him again.

Be honest
, she admonished
herself.
You want more than to just see
him again. You want him to come looking for you and stay forever.

“You are not
going to send those back,” Darla exclaimed. “Besides, they’ll make Lisa hideous
with jealousy. You have to wear them to the gala next month.”

Kaylee
grimaced. “I don’t want to go to the gala.”

“You have to
go. It’s mandatory, remember?”

Kaylee
remembered, but that didn’t mean she wanted to attend. She didn’t disagree with
the gala on principle.
A huge fundraiser to raise money for education?
Wonderful idea.
She just wished she didn’t have to
shove herself into an evening gown and pretend like she was having fun. She
always felt either overdressed or overweight in comparison to the glittering
hordes of skinny women who went to those things. She’d been to two already
since she started working here. Her company was active in several charitable
organizations and as one of their marketing
personnel,
she was responsible for advertising their fundraisers. That meant attending and
talking to all the right people. She did just fine with the advertising, it was
the mingling that made her want to crawl into a hole and hibernate.

“I hate those
things,” she muttered.

“That’s because
you stand by the wall and don’t talk to anyone,” Darla said. “And you’re
supposed to circulate.

Kaylee glared.
“So are you, yet where do you spend most of your time?
Next
to me.”

“I do it out of
sympathy, so you have someone to hang with,” Darla replied loftily.